Posts in the “zen” category

I’m not a huge believer in certain types of karma in this world, but Jack Kornfield offers this discussion about karma related to speech, and intention:

“Speech is one area in which karma can be seen in an easy and direct way. For this exercise, resolve to take two or three days to carefully notice the intentions that motivate your speech. Direct your attention to the state of mind that precedes talking, the motivation for your comments, responses, and observations. Try to be particularly aware of whether your speech is even subtly motivated by boredom, concern, irritation, loneliness, compassion, fear, love, competitiveness, greed, or whatever state you observe ... Simply notice the various motivations in the mind and the speech that flows from them.”

“Then, after discovering which motivation is present as you speak, notice the effect of the speech. If there is competitiveness or grasping or pride or irritation behind the speech, what response does it elicit from the world around you? If there is compassion or love, what is the response? If your speech is mindless, as if you were on automatic pilot, what is the response? If there is clarity and concern, how is this received and responded to?”

It brings up an excellent point: What motivates your speech?

Thoughts from the Dalai Lama on home, helping others, and living a meaningful life.

I don’t know the origin of this “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace” Dalai Lama - Homer Simpson cartoon, but I like it.

This is from this LionsRoar.com article about where Garry Shandling is in an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld. (Shandling is a “longtime mindfulness practitioner in Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition,” which I did not know.)

Today’s mindfulness “lesson of the day” (mostly for myself) is a reminder to keep practicing, even when you don’t feel like it. You don’t get to choose when moments of enlightenment happen, so the best thing you can do is keep practicing so those moments will be possible when the right circumstances (karma?) come into alignment.

What happens is that over time, both the mindfulness and the enlightenment bits change the wrinkles in your brain, change your perspective and attitude, and cleanse the environmental conditioning of whatever happened to get you to this point. With continued practice you evolve (think “metamorphosis”) into a new person over time — this time a person of your own choosing, rather than a person conditioned by where and when you were born and lived.

Namaste. ;)

This short interview titled The Tao of The RZA reminds me of the movie Ghost Dog:

“According to what one of the Elders say,
taking an enemy on the battlefield
is like a hawk taking a bird;

Even though it enters into
the midst of a thousand of them,
it pays no attention to any bird
other than the one that it has first marked.”

From an interview with Zen Master Bon Shim, for people who live with a lot of fear, worries, and insecurity:

Question: Do you feel that Zen has helped you?

Zen Master Bon Shim: Yes, yes, tremendously. I was a different person forty years ago. I was always very scared, scared of life, of people, of situations.

I like both parts of this tweet. I try to help other people where I can, but in the end you can’t take responsibility for what the other person does or doesn’t do.

A little personal enlightenment (from March 22, 2014):

Since I started passing out a few weeks ago, I’ve had conversations with doctors, nurses, friends, and even a shaman caregiver about life, death, quality of life, goals, and desires. I had a hard time answering some of those questions, and yesterday I realized why that was:

If you’re truly living in the present moment, those questions don’t make any sense! You can’t think about life, death, the past, or the future if you’re absorbed in the present moment.

When eating, just eat. When planning for the future, live fully in that moment of planning for the future. And when writing text like this, just write. That’s all.

From this article:

“Shortly after starting the session, my mind became as sharp as I’ve ever felt it in my life. I was in complete control of a lucid, concentrated mind.

I became meta aware of this mental clarity. It’s how I imagine it feels to ’wake up’ in the middle of your dreams and control them. I directed my attention away from my body to a random thought. And then brought it right back. Then away. Then back. All by choice.”

David Lynch (the director, not the realtor I knew in Kentucky) is a big proponent of transcendental meditation (TM). He writes about how he started with it, and about the transcendental meditation technique (with clips from Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, and others). Here’s a YouTube video titled, David Lynch on Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain, and here’s a related Jerry Seinfeld video on TM.

Objective judgment, now at this very moment.
Unselfish action, now at this very moment.
Willing acceptance — now at this very moment — of all external events.
That’s all you need.

~ Marcus Aurelius (as seen in the book, The Obstacle is the Way)

A woman in California is starting a “mobile meditation bus” business.

“There is no stronger method of bringing consistent lucidity to dream than by abiding continuously in lucid presence during the day.”

A quote from the book, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep.

There’s a scene in the movie, The Family Man, where Nicolas Cage is sitting in a chair and trying to stay awake, because he knows that when he falls asleep his “glimpse” will be over.

The moments just before passing out are like that. Assuming that you’re not panicking, you’re vibrantly aware of everything around you — colors, smells, etc., because you don’t know if you’re just passing out or this is Game Over.

The end of a lucid dream can also be like that. You can be in the dream, know that you’re dreaming, and then know that you’re starting to wake up. You don’t want to leave, but you don’t have a choice, so you pay great attention to the environment because you know that you may never see it again.

To the best of my knowledge, all of those are also the correct mental state for Zen and mindfulness meditation. As Shunryu Suzuki says, “The true practice of meditation is to sit as if you are drinking water when you are thirsty.”

(Namaste)

I usually just encourage people to meditate so they can learn to relax, but there’s another good reason to meditate: It helps you find out who you are. Since you were born, you’ve been programmed by your parents, siblings, other relatives, friends, and teachers; meditation is a way undoing all of that programming. Once you shed that programming, what remains is your true self.

Meditation: If you’re not putting 100% of your being into it, you’re wasting your time.

~ a note to self

fivethirtyeight.com offers a take on whether mindfulness meditation is helpful. The image shown comes from a journal named JAMA Internal Medicine.

LionsRoar.com has a story titled, The Jedi Way is the Dharma Way. It’s based on a book titled, The Dharma of Star Wars.

December 8th is recognized as the day of Buddha’s enlightenment. Tonight that makes me think of this scene from Haven. :) (I’ll meditate more tomorrow.)